The invention relates generally to paintball markers and air soft guns and the gameplay related thereto. The sport of paintball is very well known and includes the use of a paintball marker or gun to pneumatically launch a rubber ball or a ball that is typically filled with a colored liquid. For air soft, plastic projectiles are shot at opposing players. Each of the players in the game has such a marker or gun so they can launch projectiles toward players on the opposing team. When players on the opposing team are marked or hit with a projectile, there is typically a scoring event.
The present invention is particularly related to the game of paintball and the related paintball markers. Therefore, the invention will be discussed in detail in connection with paintball markers for ease of illustration but it should be understood that the present invention is applicable to the air soft sport and air soft guns as well.
It is well known in the art of paintball markers that a burst of stored gas is released from a storage reservoir by opening some type of valve assembly to launch a projectile, such as a paintball. Such a valve assembly is typically opened via the actuation of a trigger assembly to open the valve assembly for launch. For this purpose, some types of paintball markers employ a “knock-open 2-2” valve mechanism to release the burst off gas that accelerates the projectile down the barrel for launch. They typically utilize a pneumatic cylinder as a “hammer” mechanism to “knock” or “actuate” the valve open in order to release gas from the storage reservoir in order to launch a projectile from the paintball marker. For ease of reference, the pneumatic cylinder or other structure for actuating the valve is generally referred to as a “hammer” herein.
This mechanism is also used in other kinds of launching devices. For example, such a mechanism may be used with Airsoft type guns.
In many of these paintball markers the bolt mechanism and the hammer mechanism are mechanically linked so that they move in unison to simultaneously load a projectile into the barrel and then open the knock-open valve mechanism. This is preferred as it simplifies two separate mechanisms into one combined element in the system. The speed and direction in which the bolt and hammer move are the same. This results in the knock-open valve mechanism being opened with the same speed as the bolt and hammer are moving at, which is at the point that the hammer and bolt mechanism strikes the knock-open valve. Thus, the force acting on the knock-open valve mechanism is proportional to the speed and mass of the combined bolt and hammer mechanism.
With the prior art there is no way to alter the force acting on the knock-open valve mechanism without altering either the speed or the mass of the bolt and hammer mechanism. In prior art there are no elements within the system that can be altered to either increase or decrease the force acting on the valve mechanism without altering the speed and/or the mass of the hammer and bolt mechanism. The fact that the force acting on the valve is fixed to the mass of the hammer and bolt mechanism can create problems and presents limitations in the operation and construction of the marker. Most notably, current systems make it impossible to customize the force acting on the valve independently from the speed and/or mass of the hammer and bolt mechanism and vice versa.
Therefore, there is a need for an advanced gas release system that can achieve such independent control of the force acting on the valve separately to the speed and/or mass of the hammer and bolt mechanism.
There is a need for an advanced gas release system that can achieve the aforesaid independent control while still providing superior launch control.